Sugary snacks for babies should not be labelled ‘healthy’, says pressure group

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Some snacks for babies and toddlers that are marketed as ‘healthy’ contain too much sugar, according to a health watchdog’s survey.

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Action on Sugar – which is based in Queen Mary College at the University of London – says that some snacks contain two teaspoons of sugar per serving.

In some cases the snacks are being offered as weaning food and there are fears that they establish an early sweet tooth in infants.

Action on Sugar released its findings to coincide with Sugar Awareness Week (8-14 November) and wants misleading marketing claims to be removed from packaging.

Among the worst offenders, said the pressure group, were Heinz Farley’s Mini Rusks Original, which contained 8.7g of sugar per serving, and Organix Banana Soft Oaty Bars, with 8.1g of sugar per serving.

Dr Kawther Hashem, campaign lead at Action on Sugar and research fellow at Queen Mary College, University of London, said: “It’s ludicrous that certain food companies are being allowed to promote their high sugar sweet snacks to parents with very young children, despite them being aware that babies and toddlers shouldn’t be having any free sugars.

“Babies can have a preference for sweet foods, due to milk being ever so slightly sweet, but liking sugary foods is something they only learn by eating sugary foods.”

Holly Gabriel, registered nutritionist at Action on Sugar added: “Using healthy-sounding claims on sugary foods is normalising sweet snacks at a young age.

“Given just a few baby and toddler sweet snacks would be considered low in sugar, the Government must release their long-awaited commercial baby food and drink guidelines and make them mandatory to hold all companies to the same standard.

“The Government must also investigate the best way of labelling foods for babies and toddlers to provide better and more honest packaging for parents.”

IRN has reached out to both Heinz and Organix for a comment.

A spokesperson from Heinz said: “Sugar reduction is a key focus for Heinz for Baby and we are looking into ways to improve the products we make.

“Alongside the original rusks Farley’s offer a range of reduced sugar rusks with 30 per cent less sugar.

“The level of added sugars in these recipes is kept to a minimum consistent with the need to provide a texture which dissolves easily to avoid the risk of choking.

“Farley’s Rusks are very different from typical biscuits, containing very little fat and no added salt.”

Emily Day, head of food development at Organix said: “The majority of the sugar content within Organix Soft Oaty Bars comes from dried fruit which contains naturally occurring sugars.

“The fruit juice concentrate used is to hold all the ingredients together, provide flavour and to give a suitable texture for a child.

“Organix believes in using natural ingredients such as dried fruit which has the nutritional benefits of fibre, vitamins and minerals rather than using artificial sweeteners or table sugar.

“We share our full recipe and nutritional content per portion and per 100g on back of pack.

“As a brand we are constantly looking at natural ways to reduce sugar and are excited to share new news on this in 2022.”